Family

Code 4

Code 6

ITIS

ILLUSTRATION

PHOTOS

CONSERVATION STATUS

The Oriental Greenfinch has a significantly large range, reaching up to an estimated 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 square kilometers. This bird can be found in the United States, China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia and the Russian Federation, where it inhabits a wide range of environments and terrain. It can be found in rural gardens and many wetlands, but also in shrublands and forests. The global population of this species has not been quantified, but it is referred to as “common” in many portions of its range. Due to this, population trends for the Oriental Greenfinch have a present evaluation level of Least Concern.

Range and Habitat

Oriental Greenfinch: Resident throughout Asia from Russia east to Japan. Rare to casual vagrant in the western Aleutian archipelago and Pribilof Islands in summer and during spring migration. Preferred habitats include open coniferous and deciduous forests, cutover woodlands, riverbanks, and human habitations.

Oriental Greenfinch SONGS AND CALLS

Oriental Greenfinch E1

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Twittering calls from a male.

Oriental Greenfinch E2

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High-pitched call.

Similar Sounding

Voice Text

No data available.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Oriental Greenfinch is also called Grey-capped Greenfinch.

If the genus Carduelis is split up, this species would go into Chloris with the other greenfinches and the Desert Finch.

A group of finches has many collective nouns, including a "charm", "company", and "trembling" of finches.

SIMILAR BIRDS

RANGE MAP NORTH AMERICA

About this North America Map

This map shows how this species is distributed across North America.

FAMILY DESCRIPTION

Fringilline and Cardueline Finches and Allies (Fringillidae)

ORDER

Also known as perching birds, the order PASSERIFORMES (pronounced pas-ser-i-FOR-meez) is composed of one hundred and eighteen families of birds, among which are included the insectivorous warblers and the seed-eating finches.

FAMILY TAXONOMY

The Fringillidae (pronounced frin-JIHL-lih-dee) is a widespread bird family found on most continents and includes two hundred and seven species of finches in thirty-nine genera.

NORTH AMERICA

Eighty-nine species of fringillidae in twenty-nine genera have occurred in North America and Hawaii. These include familiar feeder visitors such as goldfinches and siskins, the nomadic rosy-finches of the high mountains, and a group with several extinct species; the Hawaiian Honeycreepers.

KNOWN FOR

Fringillidae are known for their seed-eating behavior and cheery songs; characteristics that facilitated and popularized the domestication of the Island Canary. Finches such as White-winged Crossbills are also known for their "irruptive" migrations in search of food sources that can make them locally common one winter and absent the next.

PHYSICAL

Fringillidae are primarily small birds with stout, short bills adapted to cracking open seeds and have short legs for a mostly arboreal lifestyle. Most species also have slightly forked tails and long wings, both useful for the large amount of flying needed to find seeding plants. Although some Hawaiian Honeycreepers share this general structure, others evolved a variety of bill shapes related to the habitat niches they occupy.

COLORATION

North American Fringillidae are generally plumaged in shades of red, yellow, brown and dull green - these colors being more vivid in the case of the Hawaiian Honeycreepers. Male finches are more brightly colored than females, the yellow and black plumage of male goldfinches being especially striking.

GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT

Fringillidae in North America occupy forest and non-forest habitats, coniferous forests being favored by most species while native Hawaiian forests are necessary for the survival of the Hawaiian Honeycreepers. The non-forest niche is filled by goldfinches (birds of weedy fields and desert), the House Finch (a desert species that has become adapted to urban environments) and the rosy-finches of alpine snow fields and tundra.

MIGRATION

Most Fringillidae are adapted to cold weather and only migrate when seed crops on their breeding grounds become scarce. Rosy-finches practice "vertical migration," moving to nearby lower elevations with better supplies of food during the winter.

HABITS

Members of the Fringillidae family are very social birds typically found in flocks outside of the breeding season. Although the rosy-finches take much insect prey on the ground and some Hawaiian Honeycreepers eat nectar, most finches forage for seeds in trees and bushes.

CONSERVATION

While Fringillidae in the United States and Canada are doing quite well, most Hawaiian Honeycreeper species are highly endangered with many having already gone extinct and others in decline because of their high susceptibility to introduced diseases such as avian malaria and changes to the native forests they inhabit.

INTERESTING FACTS

The aptly named crossbills have curious curved bills with crossed tips. Although it looks more like a bill deformity than a useful tool, this specialized bill shape is perfect for extracting seeds from pine cones. Males of the House, Cassin's, and Purple Finch species can sometimes develop yellow or orange rather than red plumage depending upon the amount of carotenoids present in their food sources.